The present invention relates to the field of mail processing and more particularly to a system and method for resolving non-address attributes on an address face of a postal item.
Non-address attributes as used herein include: stamps, pictorial representations, alpha numeric characters, stylized and non-formatted textual fields, postal endorsements, logos, and markings and the like whose resolution is desired and/or necessary for effective sorting of the respective mail piece and for associated applications such as Mail Forwarding and Return to Sender functions.
Current and prior attribute resolution systems perform automatic address reading via optical character recognition software (OCR). An example system is set out in German Patent DE 195 31 392 C1. Ideally, current mail handling automation would include some form of non-address attribute recognition. However, non-address attributes defy current automation rules including a lack of redundancy and standardization among the many non-address attribute candidates. Accordingly, with current resolution techniques, reject and error rates are higher than with address attribute resolution. As with address attributes, when an unresolveable non-address attribute is encountered with current automatic resolutions means, the image containing the unresolvable attribute is forwarded to a video coder for manual resolution. Per standard encoder techniques, a video encoder, sitting at a video encoding station, receives an image on a display (typically a computer monitor), analyzes the image for the missing/unresolvable attributes and manually keys in or enters information which could not have otherwise been obtained automatically. Thresholds of confidence are used to determine when an attribute has not been resolved and the entire image must be manually encoded.
To assist encoders, methods have been proposed wherein the encoder's attention is brought to a particular portion of the image (area of interest) where it is believed (by the method) that the non-resolvable attribute is present. Additionally, encoder communication of information has been reduced, in some circumstances to a single key stroke. However, despite such aids, manual encoding remains an inefficient solution because oftentimes, zooming and other manually scanning is required and information is not always communicatable with a single key stroke. Attempts have been made in making manual encoding more efficient by reducing the number of steps required by an encoder to arrive at a non-address attribute image location as well as the number of key strokes required for resolution. One solution, proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,875, includes the use of truthing tables. In truthing tables, portions of images are presented in matrix format. The truthing matrix per the above patent contains non-resolvable attributes clustered by what the recognition logic believed them to be. The belief is based on a partial resolution of the unresolvable attribute, wherein the partial resolution fell below a confidence threshold. A prior art matrix from the '875 patent is depicted in FIG. 1 (with reference numbers added for clarity). The matrix entries include different backgrounds to denote where the operator flagged non-matches.
As depicted in FIG. 1, a matrix 10 is presented to a viewer on computer screen 22. The matrix comprises a plurality of boxes 12 having or depicting a “O” therein. Exceptions flagged by the operator are depicted as having a hatched background and depict a “6” (element 14), “L” (element 20) and “5” (element 18). The matrix of FIG. 1 is limited in application to distinguishing single, well recognizable to the operator, alpha-numeric characters. Likewise, non-address attributes comprise more than the single digits analyzed by the '875 reference and complex ad hoc classes of patterns are not effectively handle by the method. Accordingly, a need exists for increasing mail sorting throughput via recognition of complex, non-address attributes.